Mayor says Board of Education’s FAST Academy slated to open in Forbes School in September; councilors question efficiency amid declining enrollment

Mayor Eleanor Carbone told the Torrington City Council that the Board of Education plans to open a FAST Academy at Forbes School in September and that a portion of the building will be used to store educational records. She said the BOE recently ended fiscal year 2025 with a $3.2 million surplus and transferred $1.5 million into a non-lapsing educational fund under a statutory change enacted in May 2024 that allows the BOE to move up to 2% of its operating budget into a capital/reserve account without Board of Finance approval.

Carbone said the superintendent expects to fund the FAST Academy largely with grant sources, in particular alliance funding, and that the BOE believes the plan is "under implementation" and ready to open in September. "It does appear to be, the plan that is, not only under implementation, but certainly ready to be opened in September for that purpose," Carbone said.

Council members questioned the efficiency of using Forbes School, a building sized for hundreds of students, for a program projected to serve fewer than 50 students. One councilor said maintaining the building — heat, cleaning, nurses, and administrators — for that small cohort "seems preposterously dumb" and asked whether alternative locations such as the middle school were considered; the mayor said the BOE selected Forbes School as the preferred location and controls education buildings so long as they are used for educational purposes.

Carbone added that if grant funds were not available, the BOE had other options, noting the transfer to a non-lapsing fund and recent investments (for example, a math program purchase) that the BOE used from its FY25 surplus. "The Board of Education did end FY25 with a $3,200,000 surplus," she said. Carbone also said the superintendent told the Board of Finance the grant funds do not flow through the municipal general fund (they do not become MBR), and that if the grant were lost it would not be the city's responsibility to fully make up the difference.

Councilors asked the mayor to defer further questions to the Board of Education, since the BOE controls school assets and budgeting for educational operations. The council did not take formal action on the use of Forbes School at the meeting.